ESPN's Jeremy Schaap on sports stories with substance

I had a wonderful conversation a couple weeks ago with ESPN's Jeremy Schaap, a journalist and broadcaster I've long admired. We talked about his work doing "sports stories with substance" for ESPN over the course of his 30+ year career at the World Wide Leader.

ESPN gets a lot of flak, but its original reporting on important issues at the intersection of sports and society has always been top-notch.

Here's a pull-quote from my piece, which you can read over on BroBible.

“There are always some people who are like, ‘Well, why don’t we just get scores?’ Or, ‘Why don’t we just get highlights?’ And they’re not coming to ESPN for the serious side of sports,” he says. “But many people are, and we’ve been giving it to them, the serious side of sports, for more than 30 years.”

“Without a doubt, I think Outside the Lines has always covered the most serious issues in sports fearlessly and relentlessly. And I think we’ve never had more serious stories to cover than in the last several years,” he adds.

“I’m just lucky, right?”, Schaap asks. “I went to work at a place ESPN, in 1993, that was on this incredible trajectory. I’ve been able to ride this wave, doing these stories and it’s just never stopped.”

Thanks for reading.